Cherryville finishes off Mint Hill, faces Lincoln County next

CHARLOTTE – One of the casualties of this rain-soaked American Legion baseball season was the Cherryville-Lincoln County non-division rivalry.

It took Cherryville Post 100 one game longer than it would’ve liked, but we’ll get to see that rivalry played with the highest of stakes in its history beginning Tuesday night in the North Carolina Area IV semifinals.

Cherryville split a doubleheader with Mint Hill Sunday at Independence High School, losing a 10-9, 11-inning heartbreaker in the opener before winning 6-2 in the nightcap to finish off a 3-1 quarterfinal series win.

The win keeps Cherryville’s chances to extends its record streak of Area IV titles to seven years.

Game 1 of the best-of-five series whose winner ensures a berth in the July 26-30 state tournament in Wilson will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at East Lincoln High. Game 2 would move to Cherryville Wednesday at 7. Shelby hosts Hickory Tuesday night the other semifinal opener.

In Lincoln County (17-11), Cherryville (16-12) will face one of the hottest teams in the playoffs. After surviving Henderson County 3-2 in the opening round, the Cardinals routed Caldwell County in three straight games in the quarterfinals by a combined 41-16 score.

To move on, Cherryville survived a Mint Hill home run fest in the opener, then got a fast start and some of the best pitching of right-hander Cameron High’s Legion career in the second game.

Mint Hill, which won the Eastern Division regular season title, slugged four home runs, including three in the first five innings as it took an 8-4 lead. But Cherryville scrapped from behind to tie the score at 9 in the top of the ninth.

However, Mint Hill’s final homer – Charlotte 49ers signee Logan Sherer’s second of the contest – was the game-winner with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Earlier Dalton Eisenbath also homered twice and drove in seven runs for Mint Hill, highlighted by his fifth-inning grand slam.

Cherryville got three hits apiece from Brandon Alexander and Brett Huff and two hits apiece from High and Clay Fuller. One of Fuller’s hits was a three-run homer.

After a 30-minute break, the team played the nightcap – and Cherryville jumped on top quickly.

Tyler Shumaker’s two-out, two-run double highlighted a four-run top of the first inning that also included an unearned run and Dalton Towery’s two-out RBI double. Towery made it 5-0 in the third with a one-out sacrifice fly to center to score Shumaker, who had drawn a leadoff walk.

Shumaker later drove in another run with a single to left in the seventh for a 6-0 advantage.

Mint Hill ended High’s shutout bid with one out in the seventh before finishing with 10 strikeouts while yielding seven hits, two walks and a hit batter.

Shumaker had two hits and three RBIs and Towery two hits and one RBI to lead Cherryville’s seven-hit offense.

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22